//------------------------------//
// 1.9 Bull Run 
// Story: My Little Pony: Northern Aggression 
// by A. Tuesday 
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	The snare drum started off the morning of July 21st with the most militant air it could.
And then, Pinkie “Dixie” Pie’s voice killed it.
“You call that a snare drum march?”
The nine-year old drummer on her Confederacy-suited back almost fell off the pony, shocked out of his boots. He tried to stammer out words, but none could fully form. The boy was informed that the pink pony he was riding on had the capability of talking, but to actually hear her was another thing.
Meanwhile, while the boy held on to Pinkie’s back for dear life, Pinkie demanded, “Now you strap the snare around my neck and put one o’ them drumsticks in my mouth, and I’ll show you how to really play. After all, I did lead a swarm of ravenous insects out of Ponyville all by myself. Musically, of course.”
The snare drum shook in the child’s hands. “Uh….”
“Well?”
Inside, the drummer shrugged. He was riding on some alien pony, pink in color and resembling a demented political cartoon, playing the drum for some war he’d probably die in. What the hell. Let the pony play the drums.
With hands shaking as if hypothermic, he lifted the drum off his neck, and slowly, carefully, put it around the cooperative pony’s neck.
“Ugh, itchy,” the flamboyant pony said, rolling her eyes, “But, it’s alright. Now, come on, gimme the drumstick!”
The boy backed away a bit while still holding out the drumstick, fearful that the animal he rode upon would bite him for whatever reason. The child wondered what an alien pony’s bite felt like. Did it still hurt?
Before the question could be answered, wood slid against his coarse hands and Pinkie Pie had the drumstick between her teeth, the drum just below her so that, if she so wished, she could technically smash her face into the face of the drum. Perfect for performing.
“Herr, Rariree!” she called through her drumstick-holding teeth, “Rariree!”
The white unicorn at the other end of the field pulled her eyes away from the flap to her tent to see her Confederate friend, smiling happily with a drumstick on her mouth and snare drum at her chest. 
“Wah wiss!” Pinkie yelled.
Her eyebrows scrunched up, she focused on the drum, and with more concentration than Rarity had seen before, she began to move her jaw side-to-side, playing, actually playing the snare drum. The sliding of her jaw cause the drumstick to hit the snare drum at such a fast pace, it actually worked. Irregularly, but still.
The child riding Pinkie was in a state of pure disbelief. He begged to tell himself that now he’d seen everything, but a sinking feeling from within told him it wouldn’t be true.
Rat-a-tat-tat tat-tat-tat-tat tat-tat-tatat-tatat-tatat rat-a-tata-tata-tata – 
“Very nice, dear!” Rarity called to her friend, then turned back to the flap of her tent. The medical cap she wore on her head was slowly sliding different ways, and had it not been for her horn, it probably would’ve fallen off already. Human caps were not made for ponies. She whispered quietly into the tent, “Fluttershy, are you ready? Beauregard’s going to start the charge any minute now.”
“I…I don’t know…” came the soft reply, “I…I’m not fit to do…this.”
“Oh, come on, now, Fluttershy,” the medical pony tried to console, “You’ve been the South’s top target shooter for a while now! You’re a dead shot! Now, come on out and let’s see your uniform.”
“It’s not even a uniform…Celestia, I must look ridiculous.”
“Well, I am a fashionista,” Rarity joked, “I’ll be the judge of that. Come on now, let’s see it.”
The unicorn backed off once she heard the sound of hooves rustling in the grass. Slowly, the flap of the tent moved aside, and there she was.
Fluttershy stood before Rarity, completely unsure of herself. On her back, a modified rifle suited just for an Equestrian pony was strapped, and an ammunitions belt around her stomach. Besides that, her normally pastel pink mane was covered with alternating green and brown war paint. The most distinguishing feature was the Confederate war flag, in bandana form, wrapped around her forehead so that one eye was completely covered. Perfect for a sniper.
Rarity cocked her head to the side. “Aww, you look like a regular warrior.”
Fluttershy shrugged and just looked over to the side. “Maybe so, but I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can actually fire at these soldiers…”
“Nonsense! Ever since you’ve gotten that…that thing, you’ve been able to bull’s-eye every wooden target and destroy every bottle like it was all you ever knew! By the way, where’d you learn to do that?”
The pegasus looked up into her eyelids, the answer clearly being there. “Uh…I had a bit of a bow-and-arrow feeding system for the birds at one point. On the days I was really busy, I would tie a sack of bird feed to an arrow head, and fire it into some trees, for the birds to pick on. Saved me the time of doing it myself whenever I had to go to Cloudsdale or Canterlot or wherever. Accuracy’s kinda my thing, I suppose.”
Rarity nodded her head at a minute pace, internally applauding her friend. “That’s ingenious. But, my point is – if you can do all that, then I’m certain you won’t have any trouble dispatching a few Union soldiers – “
“It’s not that I’m not able to do it,” Fluttershy sighed, “It’s just – I can’t. I can’t kill an actual living thing. Bottles and targets are different. It’s…it’s just wrong, Rarity. I can’t end the life of anypony, or anybody for that matter.”
Rarity looked at the ground, trying to come up with an incentive to shoot. But, none were found. Her friend was timid, and even though Rarity herself wasn’t nearly as shy and reluctant, she did see the clarity in Fluttershy’s viewpoint. But, this is what she was meant to do! She picked it up so fast – this was her niche! What else could she do?
“Fluttershy,” the medic mare began, “I know it’s hard, but – “
“’Can’t even eat my damned eggs in the morning and they’re already starting to fire. Jesus Christ.”
The voice of General G.T. Beauregard permeated the air and silenced Rarity. He and a company of two other soldiers marched towards their tent, on their way to the throng of thousands of soldiers just a little ways away from the ponies’ living quarters. The officer stopped at the sight of Rarity and her friend. “You two ready? I’m about ready to start this fight and finish it. Damn Yankees! Artillery firin’ at this hour.”
Rarity nodded triumphantly. Fluttershy, not so much. “Err, yes sir, but, um…”
“Good! We’ll need the both of ya’s out there.” Turning to his other two officers, “Tell the men to ready up. We leave this here encampment as soon as I blows my whistle.”
Fluttershy began to panic. They were going to start the battle now. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t use this thing against the Union! She couldn’t kill anybody!
“Fluttershy, let’s get to Pinkie Pie,” Rarity stated urgently, “He’s about to move out! Come on!”
Still dazed in her thoughts, and petrified for her life, Fluttershy galloped after a trotting Rarity, in front of the massive grid of soldiers who had their bayonets out, ready to kill. The two ponies just got across the gap to their pink friend by the flagpole when Beauregard yelled out: 
“Gentlemen! We fight today! For the Confederacy!”
And blew the whistle around his neck as loud as he could.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be joking.”
Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up at the voice of General McDowell over on the Union side. He was squinting, looking intently over at something on the far end of the wide expanse they were at. 
“What, whaddaya see?” Rainbow asked eagerly.
The general took out his binoculars, and looked through them to the same point. “Damnit,” he muttered, “Didn’t think they’d respond to artillery that fast.”
He turned away from his binoculars to his fellow subordinate officers, who were on horseback. Earth horses, not Equestrian ponies. “They’ve started to charge! Git your men out there and let’s end this before it begins!”
Rainbow watched as the officers nodded their heads rigidly, and began to gallop away perpendicular to where she stood, yelling and shouting incomprehensible things and sometimes even blowing a whistle. 
While they did this, McDowell, with an oxymoronic look of both worry and confidence in his face, turned to Rainbow Dash. “Ready, Miz Dash?” he questioned, “We’re ‘bout to have ourselves a little skirmish. A real one. I trust Applejack’s still at the artillery?”
Rainbow thought about it for a second. “She hasn’t told me otherwise.”
“And, your other friend, Sparkle?”
Rainbow cast a sideways glance to the Virginia grass. “I’d be surprised if she leaves our tent. She had some sort of nightmare last night, and she won’t respond to anything. Something big last night, I guess. I wouldn’t bother her too much. I’ll talk to her later about it, see what’s up.”
A large quantity of shouting then occurred, and both general’s and pony’s heads alike turned to see the massive battalion of Northern soldiers running, shouting for the glory of Columbia, heading straight off to meet the enemy with guns at the ready. It was time.
McDowell tipped his hat at the prismatic pegasus beneath him. “Ready to go?”
Rainbow Dash then proceeded to give him a cocky smile – mouth turned up in a smug fashion, her eyelids halfway down with one eyebrow raised. Fitting for the rest of her look – her new favorite Union boots; a small unbuttoned jacked for her upper half, its only eye catching object being a special, emblazoned patch on the back that read “1st Magical Calvary” in a stylized yellow lettering; and, of course, a belt with about four grenades in it. A smile that told the general – 
“I was born ready.”

Battle ensued. Harsh, awful, grizzly battle.
Man against man, sometimes from a distance, sometimes as close to one another that knives were drawn and used. Bloody battle. In the hours that began to pass, the ground became red with the blood of downed soldiers, and littered with the bodies of downed soldiers.
Those that had to fortune to die were prayed for my friends and other soldiers from their respective side. The ones that didn’t have the good fortune to die either kept fighting…
…or, as another unlucky soldier with a bullet in his abdomen did, ended up in Nurse Rarity’s tent.
The battle was getting to the unicorn. The two sides had been at it for a good couple hours already, and the wounded numbers only seemed to grow. Somewhere, deep in the recesses of her brain, she knew there were other tents in her encampment for this sort of thing. But, when soldiers were being dropped off left and right, to a staff of only a few people (and one pony) who didn’t have any of the proper medical supplies, it seemed there were no other tents.
The soldier who had just come in was writhing in pain, carried and supported by two of his buddies who were walking the hunching soldier in. Rarity was the first to approach them. “What?” she asked, knowing that at this point in the game, there were no reasons for formalities.
The soldier on the wounded one’s left answered first. “Took a bullet to the stomach.”
Rarity cringed. These were the worst cases. Mess up even once, and you just had a dead body lying in a pool of blood on your medical blanket, with nothing good to show. And that was just wrapping the injury.
One of the other doctors in her tent spoke up, as some others began to carry the wounded one. “How is it out there?” he asked hopefully, trying to get his mind off the horror that was this medical tent.
The other buddy spoke up this time. “Not too good. Gittin’ pushed back some. Ain’t we supposed t’ be gittin’ reinforceaments? I ain’t seen none yet, and we ain’t gonna last much longer, m’afraid.”
The doctor shook his head. “Just stay vigilant. Beauregard will do what he thinks is the best.”
The two soldiers nodded, and the weary men went back to the ol’ grind on the Virginia plain.
The sound of gunfire, screams, and bloodshed could be heard all the way to the medical tent, which was a long way off from the actual battle. Rarity gave a concerned look to the outside world before looking down on her new patient, who still writhed in pain horribly.
“Where’s the wound?” she asked politely.
“ERRRRRRRRRRRRR,” he groaned loudly, “I – I TOOK A DAMNED BULLET – ARRRGGHHH – IT’S – IT’S LODGED IN MY STOMACH. AND – AND – “
Rarity had already begun folding back the clothing with her magic, finding the red stain on his uniform with ease. Being as gentle as she could as not to hurt the man anymore than she had to, she continued talking. “And what?”
She recoiled in horror, as did the three other doctors in her medical tent did, at the sight of the soldier’s bare stomach.
“I – I – “ he tried to explain, “I – I PULLED IT OUT, BUT – BUT – ONE O’ THE YANKS – ARGGHHH – THEY THREW A KNIFE – AND – AND IT HIT – ERRRRRRRRRR – “
That was clearly evident. Rarity felt her small breakfast winding its way back up as she saw his stomach. Not the outer area around it, which was covered with a mixture of light and dark blood specks.
The knife cut so deep she could see his actual stomach, mixed around with other various internally bleeding organs.
Out of the dozens of soldiers Rarity had wrapped so far, she hadn’t quite lost it. She had gotten close, but never there.
This poor soul wasn’t making it.
And, although outside she did her best to keep her composure, inside, the white unicorn had finally snapped.

Back on the other side of the field, Applejack held a firm grip on the cannon. She thanked her observation skills, as without Pinkie Pie’s constant firing of the party cannon back in Equestria, she never would’ve figured out how to use this thing.
A grin appeared on her face. But, she did.
“Light this baby!” she yelled out to nobody in particular, as she had been doing for the last couple of hours. A random Union soldier ran up to the scene, lit a match, and then struck the match on the string of the cannon. Hands cupping his ears, the Northern soldier ran from the cannon as quick as he could.
Applejack rotated the massive gun hastily, finding a random point in the Confederacy line, and tensed up as the fuse began to wind down. She went white-knuckled and turned her head away, unable to cover up her own ears. She squeezed her eyes shut as the fuse silenced itself.
BOOM! Recoil launched the gun a few inches back, along with Applejack. Though, after the initial shock, the cannon lurched back into place, much lighter than before. The artillery pony opened her eyes again to check her work, only to see a Rainbow Dash in her path.
“Ah!” the farmpony exclaimed, not expecting to anybody that close. When she recognized the face, “Rainbow! What’re ya doin’ here? Shouldn’t you be bombin’ or whatever?”
Rainbow waved a hoof at Applejack. “Nah, I can wait. Need to load up on more of those grenades, anyway. You’ll never guess what I did, though!”
AJ cocked her head. “No, what’d you do?” She suddenly caught herself, and just as Rainbow took a breath to speak, she held up a hoof. “No, wait, hold up.” To the other soldiers, “Hey, fellers! I need another one loaded up in this’un!”
She turned back to Rainbow Dash, leaning against her cannon. “Go ahead, Dash. Tell me whatcha did.”
Rainbow’s disinterested and impatient face was replaced with one of excitement as she took a deep breath, and then told her tale.
“Alright, so I was doing my fly-by, you know, dropping these explosives on those Southerners, and out of nowhere my instincts kick in. There’s something behind me. All the way up in the sky. I know, right? Weird. Anyway, I turn and kick out my back left hoof, and I kick – you’ll never guess – I kick a knife out of the sky! Some ‘Federate thought they could pull a fast one on ol’ Dash and give her a throwing knife from behind, but no sir! I kicked it right back, and I watched it fall. And then, guess what?”
The orange pony was getting increasingly impressed with Dash’s aerial skills; she hadn’t had this kind of reflex back in Equestria. That was easy to see – there were plenty of holes and cracks in buildings where her flying was “a bit off”. Applejack was intrigued. “Aw, I don’ know, what happened?”
Dash cocked a smile, as the sound of metal-on-metal resounded through the air, the cannonball now loaded into AJ’s gun for another go. The pegasus said, “I watched the knife – and it went right into some Confederate! Can you believe that? I got ‘em good!”
Applejack’s state of intrigue was replaced with one of vague disappointment. For some reason, taking pleasure in what could possibly be a death wasn’t something she really liked to do. Sure, she shot artillery – but, she thought of that more as a scare thing. She doubted anyone really died from her cannon blasts – but, then again…
“Mighty respectable,” AJ eventually said with a wry smile, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta keep at it. Stay safe, Dash!”
The blue pony nodded. “AJ, please. You’re talking to Rainbow Dash here! I’m always safe! Later!”
And with that, she flew off into the gunfire again, belt clip loaded with new grenades, and Applejack resuming her position on the cannon again. The fuse had already been lit, and she now looked away from the cannon as the sound winded down to a climax. It was about to blow.
And then, the orange pony spotted a boot on the ground. One that’d fit a pony.
One that’d fit Rainbow Dash.
AJ barely noticed the cannon recoil as it fired, for as soon as the BOOM! occurred, she leapt for the boot, and stood up again with it in her mouth.
The two other soldiers manning the cannon looked at the pony questionably. She pointed a hoof at the two of them, and got out through a boot in her teeth, “You two! Man dat cannon! I ha ta go gi’ iss to mah rend!”
The two men looked at each other, then to Applejack, nodding militantly. They understood.
AJ replied with an identical nod, then galloped away from her position, straight into battle to give her friend her boot.

Another explosion occurred. Fluttershy could see it from her vantage point, and bit her lip. She had lost count of what number that was a long time ago, and that was a problem, considering that’s about the only thing she’d been doing up here.
She was leaned against a tree branch, high up in the thicket of leaves where nobody would see her. Perfect for sniping. Though…she hadn’t had the heart to even get out the gun. It was primed and loaded already – all she needed to do was step on the modified trigger mechanism after looking down the sights, and pop!, a Union soldier down in an instant.
And by “down”, she meant “dead.”
Fluttershy shook her head in response to her own thoughts. No, she couldn’t bring herself to do that yet. She doubted she could ever bring herself to that. The pegasus couldn’t kill anything. Why did she ever agree to keep firing this thing at targets?
She glanced at the gun on her back, then to the battlefield, and sighed. She had done absolutely nothing up here. The pony figured she should at least try to help, but she didn’t know how. She wasn’t about to kill anything with the lethal weapon on her back, but at the same time, nor could the pegasus fly away. It would be like shining a spotlight on herself. Everybody saw the flying horse.
No matter how she wanted to be one, now was not the time to be a tree. The pink-maned pony knew she had to help in some way. But, what could she possibly do? 
Sighing, she looked down to the battlefield, watching the Union guys keep moving forward at a steady rate, while the Confederates dwindled greatly. They didn’t back down, though. What, were they nuts? They would get themselves killed out here. They were getting themselves killed. Why not back down?
Another artillery explosion rocked the battlefield. “Sixty….seven?” Fluttershy said aloud, “No, that can’t be right.” She exhaled. It was hopeless. She was basically part of the tree up here. Unable to do anything but watch and listen. She didn’t even know what time it was.
Maybe, is she looked at the battle a little more closely, she could learn a bit for next time there was a battle. If there was a next battle. Readjusting herself, Fluttershy watched and listened intently, just like the studious tree she always wanted to be.
She heard a different sound – vaguely reminiscent of the sound the cannonballs made when they landed, but at the same time, kind of different. More of a BOOMing sound than the crashing she’s been hearing. 
Almost as soon as the sound was heard, she heard a distant Southern voice call out, “Artillery!” The men in his general area began to run away as frantically as they could, before the entire area was covered with the thick smoke and explosion of the cannonball.
Fluttershy scratched her chin. “Huh,” she thought aloud, “They’re scared of the cannonball before it even hits…they know the sound.”
A memory floated back to Fluttershy. One in June with her practicing with the weapon that was now on her back, the officer who originally handed her the thing standing right by.
“Look, see?” he said, pointing to the hole of the bull’s-eye, “You’re doin’ a great job!”
Fluttershy blushed. “Thank you.”
The man continued. “You know, snipers don’t get too many hits? Naw, when someone shoots a sniper rifle, they mean business – and everybody knows it. You never forget the sound of a sharpshooter goin’ off, or the speed of the bullet that comes outta it. Now, that’s something that’ll make ya run.”
The answer to what she could be doing, back in the present on the battlefield, hit her in the face. She didn’t have to kill anybody. All she had to do was scare them away.
Slowly, and with the use of both hoof and wing, she pulled the rifle from her back and raised it up to her uncovered eye. She looked right between the iron sights of the sharpshooter, making sure she was lined up just right. The pegasus was. Perfect.
Then, rather than aiming downwards at the battlefield, she aimed upwards, to a random cloud Fluttershy thought about separating with a sniper bullet. With the cloud inside, she held her hoof on the modification – a series of levers leading to one hoof-sized pedal that was attached to the trigger, so that she could shoot it.
She stuck her tongue out in concentration, and, taking a deep breath, pushed down on the lever.
The crack! of the gun was just as loud as she needed it to be. She cringed at the sound, like she always did, but then as soon as she had taken the shot, listened down to the battlefield for the results she wanted.
A smile grew on the pegasus’s face at the shouts of Northern voices below.
“Sniper!”
“Where?”
“Confederate snipers!”
“Get outta there! Move before they get ya!”
“Where are they?” 
“I don’t know!”
Fluttershy looked down to the battlefield; her gun placed on her back once more, and watched the tough-as-nails Union Army falter. The sniper bullet had caused a bit of confusion, and through it all, the incoming forces had faltered a bit. Just enough motivation that the small Confederates actually stood their ground and pushed forward a bit.
Through the corner of her blue eyes, the pegasus saw that “small” was a word not going to be used for very much longer. She turned her head to see a group of Dixieland-dressed soldiers, numbering in the hundreds, maybe even thousands, rushing from the dense Southern edge of the forest.
The reinforcements had arrived.
Fluttershy leaned back against her tree. Maybe she could use that gun, after all.

The sky began to turn a gray overcast as Rainbow Dash flew back to the Union encampment, worry in her flight pattern. She thought she had seen an orange blur within the Union troops, and just wanted to make sure AJ was still at her post. The battle itself was no place for anypony.
Dash landed at the artillery site, and finally found the rusting cannon that Applejack had been firing from. Only, she wasn’t there. The two men who originally were with her orange friend were, but the pony herself wasn’t.
Calm down, Rainbow, she thought to herself, Applejack’s smarter than to run straight into battle. Just ask the men where she went. Probably with Twilight or something.
She called over the din of the battlefield, “’Scuse me? Have you two seen Applejack?”
One man was too busy loading the cannon to hear. The other, the one who actually heard rainbow, gave the pegasus a pained look, and shook his head. “No, we haven’t. She said something about returning a boot to her friend.” He gestured to the one hoof of Rainbow’s that didn’t have a special boot on it. “I’m guessin’ that means you.”
Oh, no.
Rainbow began to panic. Her friend was out there! She was out there in the battlefield, for who knows how long! And, it was about to get worse. The pegasus had seen the incoming Confederate reinforcements. Things were about to get ugly.
She needed to think. Dash couldn’t just fly in there – she’d get herself killed. Everybody saw the flying horse. Then what? She’d be dead, and Applejack would most likely be dead. The pegasus needed to act, and fast.
With a look of near desperation, Rainbow shouted to the men, “There’re Confederate reinforcements coming! Tell the officers!”
The man who hadn’t been listening prior to this now listened, and did as told. His on-the-ball, ever-vigilant attitude that only half these soldiers seemed to possess reminded her of Twilight.
Twilight.
Of course! She could do it!
Rainbow took off from the ground and flew to Twilight’s tent, the events of the previous night ringing a bell in her head. No, Twilight would come to for something important like this. She never gave up, and Celestia knows the unicorn has had to do some tough stuff. Plus, she could teleport right in and teleport out. Getting Applejack would be better if Twilight did it.
The prismatic pony almost barreled into the flap of the tent, not paying attention, but caught herself beforehand and stopped. She took a brief glance over to the battlefield, which only heightened her worry. The reinforcements were getting closer. Applejack was priority number one. She’d be dead out there soon.
Rainbow burst into the tent, and startled Twilight, who had been just sitting on her cot, thinking. The unicorn looked up, slightly scared, at Rainbow. “Dash?” she asked nervously, “What – what is it?”
“Applejack!” Rainbow exclaimed, “She – she went into battle, and reinforcements are coming in! I can’t get to her, they’d shoot me down! I don’t know why she did it, but she’s gone. You can do it!”
For a reason the pegasus didn’t know, Twilight’s eyes got to the size of dinner plates. “Wh - wh – what? Why me?”
“You can teleport!” Rainbow said, now yelling, “You can get in, find her, and teleport out! But, hurry! There’s not much time!”
Rainbow Dash only had a mini heart attack when she saw her friend, usually tough and resilient, begin to just stare at the wall at the tent, attempting to give the structure the thousand-yard stare. And…was she rocking? What had happened?
The pegasus didn’t know. But what she did know, was that…
“Twilight, you’re her only hope. She’ll die out there. I think she’s looking for me, and I can’t help her. You’ve….you’ve got to get to her. I’ll watch your back as long as I can, but those soldiers won’t be able to grab her in time.”
Twilight didn’t budge. Dash sighed, and then once more, pleadingly, begged.
“Please, Twilight. Only you can get to her.”
The unicorn stared at the tent only a minute longer, and then looked to Dash. 
Unfaltering, Twilight stated, “We need to get her.”
Smoke. Smoke and gunshots.	
That’s all Twilight could see as she looked around, trying to find Applejack. It was like a deep fog over here.
Not to mention the screams. The yells of all the soldiers dying on the field was absolutely mortifying. Twilight’s ear pressed back against her head as she called out for her friends.
An awful feeling of déjà vu came over her. She had hoped her dream had meant nothing. And still did.
“Applejack!” she called into the fray, “Applejack!”
BLAM! A union soldier’s head exploded in front of her, blood splattering all over her lavender mane. She recoiled in utter shock, but then shook her head. No, Applejack first. Why, oh why, did she ever leave her artillery post?
Twilight realized she had remained in the same position this whole time, in the midst of the advancing Union Army and the steadfast Confederacy’s scuffle. Scuffle being the grossest understatement there ever could have been.
It was a nightmare. Blood and guts spilled everywhere, bodies dropped like bricks to the ground, and it was all Twilight could do to maintain her sanity and breakfast. 
The purple mare began to weave in and out of the soldiers, looking into the fray for her friend. Nothing.
“Apple- AH!”
She activated her magic instinctively, and looked up to see she had successfully captured an incoming cannonball. It hung in the air, swirling slightly, enveloped in a purple aura. Twilight lowered it to the ground gently.
She heard a whoosh overhead as Rainbow Dash appeared from the sky. Twilight looked up to her pegasus companion and shouted, “Dash! Have you seen AJ?”
“No, still lookin’!” called back her friend, as she reached into her saddlebag with her wing and pulled out a dart-like object. She heaved it downwards, towards the Confederacy. A large, fiery explosion followed, synchronized with the screams of agony from the Southerners.
Twilight cautiously advance, eyes wide, in between the Union soldiers who seems oblivious to the Equestrian pony. The mare realized with horror, among the bullets and badges and bayonets beside her, that there was nothing but her magic she could use to protect herself in this battle. And she highly doubted she’d see a bullet before it hit her.
This was terrible. What was her magic doing to her? Giving her nightmares that she’d only have to live out later? Like a teaser trailer? What sort of sick joke was this?
Her heart began racing, exponentially increasing speed at a horrible rate. At one point, sound began to drown out, the only sound in her ears being the rapid thump-thump of her heart.
There was a muffled shout to the right. Twilight looked over to the direction of the sound, and almost heard herself say “What?”
Then, an explosion. From behind. She felt a splatter of liquid on her flank, and felt the vibrations of bodies hit the ground near her hooves. She froze in her tracks as a high-pitched buzzing replaced every sound she heard, including her heartbeat.
The pain in her head was awful, and to make matters worse, sound came back only to hear the words, “Retreat!”
Twilight looked around, panicking, having no idea what was going on as all the Union soldiers began to run the other way, back towards D.C. What was going on?
The answer hit her harshly. Rainbow warned her of the reinforcements. The Confederacy now had the upper hand. Plus, she had dreamed about this.
The last part, Applejack’s getting shot, and the bayonet – maybe there was still time. Maybe this wasn’t all destined to come true.
A fleeing soldier rammed into the idle horse and she fell face-first into the muddy ground. The pony turned over, looking up at the overcast sky, spitting out the bits of mud that had somehow gotten themselves into her mouth.  In contrast to the clouds, Rainbow appeared again, a bit scratched up, in fact.
“Twilight! Get up!” Rainbow screamed, “You need to move, now!”
“A…Applej…” Twilight attempted, recoiling from the reverberating pain going throughout her head. The cyan pegasus dashed away from the battle, leaving Twilight in the swarm of retreating Union soldiers…
…and an orange pony who donned a cowboy hat. 
Applejack!
“Twilight,” the usually-calm pony said hurriedly, “What’re ya doin’? We need ta go, now!”
Twilight began to pick herself up from the mud. “I was waiting for you! What were you doing?”
“The Confederacy,” AJ started, “They have the upper hand! Reinforcements! Twilight, we have to – “
A bang silenced Twilight’s hearing and killed Applejack’s sentence as all the energy she had focused into her magic. The bang of a teleportation spell was always a good feeling – it meant danger was out of the way.
And what was even more comforting was the second bang – the pop out of teleportation. Relief swirled through Twilight as she and Applejack fell with a thump just outside the battleground – several yards in front of the retreating forces.
A mud-stained Twilight got up as quick as she could, standing proud and smiling. She lent a hoof to Applejack, who just shot her a confused look. “Twilight, what’s uh – “ she tried to say.
Before her lavender friend cut her off, that is. “Saving your life,” Twilight stated, “I had a bit of a dream yesterday. Now we need to run!”
“Where to?” she asked in her farmpony voice just as Dash landed right next to them.
“D.C.,” the unicorn replied, “Nice to see you, Dash! Now, let’s move!”
With that, they began galloping, just a couple feet in front of the pack of retreating Union soldiers. AJ saw Dash running with them, and shouted over the din of soldiers, “Hey! I got your boot! It’s under mah hat!”
Rainbow flashed her a smile of relief. “Thank you! But, next time – don’t get yourself killed over one of my boots!”
The three ponies, without stopping, led the group of retreats across the plains of Virginia, back to Lincoln, back to the Capitol – back to DC, and with it, ended the first real battle of the American Civil War.

Beauregard wiped his brow with his forearm, as the congregation of his Southern soldiers began to walk back to the encampment, a smile of victory on their faces. They had won the battle.
Hell, Beauregard smiled, too. Here they were, a ragtag group of soldiers from eleven states that wanted out – no proper West Point-style training. And here, they won against one of the toughest armies out there. The officer beamed at the sight of his boys.
Someone began cheering throughout the throng, and soon all of the Confederates were dancing, cheering, and whooping about. The signs of death and war were all about them, but they didn’t seem to care. The general saw; but he let it go. Let them have their moment of joy before the truth hits them.
At that point, he became aware of a rustling next to him. Looking down, he spotted none other than Dixie Pie – or so General Lee had aptly named her. She was looking rather proud of herself.
Beauregard smiled down at her. “We did good today, didn’t we?”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “Yup. We sure showed the Northerners what for!” She kept her smile planted on her face even when she said what the officer never would’ve expected. “’Coulda done better, though.”
“I imagine,” the officer said, a little taken aback by the statement, “A bit less loss of life. We certainly lost a number today, didn’t we?”
“Well, yeah. But besides that.” Her blatancy was something to marvel at, no doubt about it. 
The general pondered it a moment more. “Well, what do you mean, ‘besides that’? How could we have done better, then?”
“We could have ended the war.”
G.T. Beauregard couldn’t answer this. He wanted to tell her that war didn’t work that way, but couldn’t find the right words. He wanted to tell her that the Confederacy wasn’t nearly as trained as the Union, but only silence remained. He wanted to tell her that you can’t end the war on the first battle, but his voice remained idle.
Pinkie’s didn’t, though. “But, I guess that’s the fun, isn’t it? I mean, what would a war be if there was only one battle? It’d be no fun at all, would it?”
The two looked on, through the throng of dancing, cheering, and whooping soldiers, and at all the dead bodies on the fields. The general thought somberly of all the wounded that lay in either side’s medical tents. And, of all the more dead and wounded that were to come.
Yes. What would a war be if there was only one battle?
It would be no fun at all.

END OF ACT I